Someone is Always Watching Us  

One day last week I was driving down the road when something in the sky ahead of me caught my eye. At first, I thought it was a bird flying, but something about it just didn’t look right. I soon realized that what I had spied was a small drone. Even more odd was the fact that it wasn’t hovering over one area – it seemed to be following the route of the highway I was on. I continued to keep an eye on it for a couple of miles before I saw it turn to the right – the same direction I was planning to go. After making the turn I still saw it, but it seemed to be slowly descending. At the next intersection I had to stop at a traffic light. As I did, the drone came down almost right next to my vehicle, hovering for a few seconds, almost as if it was looking at me. Then it flew away as the light changed. It continued to fly ahead of me, although at a lower altitude, going so low that it was actually flying above the traffic but underneath the power lines. Then it happened. It’s wing struck one of those lines, causing the gadget to pummel into the other lane of the road. As it crashed, one of the cars in front of me quickly pulled across that lane to block traffic and someone reached out to retrieve the drone. I then realized that the person who had been controlling the drone must have been riding in that vehicle which had been traveling ahead of me this whole time. I don’t know what they were doing or why, but I have to admit that it was a little creepy to see such a potential spy-in-the-sky following my route and even hovering over me as if it was watching me.

Does it bother us when we consider the fact that there is a God who is watching everything we do? The Bible clearly describes Him as an omnipresent spirit who sees all and knows all. And if that isn’t enough, His abilities extend beyond just observing our outward actions. He also knows our very thoughts, as well as being able to discern our hidden desires and motives. Do we find that creepy, disturbing, or even scary? Does it stir up guilt or shame in light of the way we sometimes act, the words we let come out of our mouths, or the thoughts we entertain?  

How do we handle this truth of God’s ever-present watchful eye? Some of us may simply try not to think about it. We either deny what the Bible teaches about this subject or we just choose to ignore it. Others may be more concerned about what God thinks, but just hope they can do enough good things to outweigh the bad, or they bank on God’s forgiveness. Certainly, we’ve all fallen short of God’s standard of righteousness and need the grace that is available to us through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. We can never make up for it by our own good deeds. We have to put our trust in the Lord for forgiveness.

However, as we move forward in our lives as His followers, the best way to deal with the fact that we are serving an all-seeing and all-knowing God is to let Him transform us from the inside out. He can change our hearts. He can purify our motives. He can help us think about good things. And He can clean up our speech and our behavior. We may falter at times and will still need His forgiveness. However, let’s also trust Him to help us better live and think in ways that will please the One who is always watching us.